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What To Do If You Don’t Get Much Interest From Your Job Ad

Published: Jan 08, 2018
By Rikka Brandon

Almost everyone who has hired for a difficult to fill position has posted a job opening and gotten little to no response.

No one appears to be interested enough to actually apply. Or those that do are so grossly unqualified that you don’t even understand why they would’ve taken the time to apply in the first place. (Seriously? What are those people thinking? They drive me crazy! ARGH!)

Anyway…. Although job boards and job postings are one of the most common (and easiest) ways to get applicants for your opening they rely heavily on luck. Now, a great job ad will improve your luck, but still, you need luck.

Now, you might be wondering what does luck have to do with it? Well, we need luck:

That qualified people are on the board we posted our job on

That they see our posting (and it hasn't been pushed down to page 7 by new postings)

That our title is compelling enough to get them to click to read our whole job posting

That our job posting inspires them to apply

That they have a current resume that they can quickly + easily attach (because if they have to update or create a resume, many of them will never actually come back and apply)

You can see why posting a job ad can feel a bit like rolling the dice. That is why those of us in the recruiting industry call it “Posting and Praying” You post your job and pray someone good sees it and applies. Occasionally, it works. Often, it doesn’t.

Want Better Results? Do these 3 things.

1. Make sure you’re selling the opportunity.

Talk about what the great opportunity is and give them great reasons to apply. Take a step back from your job ad answer these questions:

Are you selling the opportunity or just stating what is required? If you’re simply stating what is required, you’re going to get dismal results every single time.

2. Make sure that your ad is getting in front of the right people.

Are you posting for a part-time graphic designer position in the newspaper? Because those candidates are more likely to be looking online. If you are looking for a freelance or independent person – Monster and Careerbuilder are the wrong tool – try Upwork or Freelancer.com.

3. Post it in multiple places.

Personally, I like getting in front of a wide variety of audiences because you never know where the right person is coming from. You need to get in front of a lot of different people to connect with the right one. When I am working on a search, I use at least 12 sources to find candidates. If you are only using one medium to attract and find candidates you are missing out on a huge number of potential candidates.

Now, job postings can be expensive, so I'm not advocating spending hundreds of dollars on 12 postings. Utilize free and low-cost platforms to share your opportunity with your ideal hires. Posting your job opening on multiple free and low cost platforms is a tactic I go into in-depth in Attract & Recruit.

Still not getting any results?

Be bold!

Take action – find the right people and, reach out to them and tell them about your great opportunity or simply network with them. When you start to direct recruit people your candidate quality goes WAY up and your competition goes way down. But, I realize it can make people a bit nervous, so I decided to share an excerpt of Attract & Recruit to help you learn How To Network Like A Recruiter. It's much, much easier than you think and not at all pushy, salesy, or swarmy. So, give it a shot if you are having trouble getting candidates with job postings.